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Tag Archives: Tim Miles

Every once in a while as a CSU Rams fan you have to ask yourself, “Why do I even bother?” Today was one of those days. On my lunch break I saw reports of Tim Miles reportedly taking the head coaching job at Nebraska. Nothing was official, but things sure seemed to be heading in a very specific direction.

Seven hours (and seven beers) later, the Denver Post reported that the deal was final. Tim Miles has resigned as the head basketball coach at Colorado State University. Some die-hard fans will say they knew it was coming and it was only a matter of time. Some die-hard fans will say this move is bush league and Miles should be ashamed of himself. Indeed, a plethora of emotions will come to a head for fans of the CSU program.

Miles has probably always seen Colorado State as a stepping stone… And that’s okay. The CSU basketball program will have a hard time shaking the reputation of a middle-of-the-road job that, with success, can springboard a career into a “real job” in real a conference.

The thing that stings is… CSU was primed for a huge, huge next year. Essentially the entire team that took the Rams to their first at-large tournament bid since 1989 is coming back. Will Bell and Kaipo Sabas are the only seniors that are moving on. They are nice players that played a large role in certain games, but the true core of this team is (was?) ready to factor in the national landscape of college basketball next season. I’ve been saying for at least a couple of years that next season was the one for Rams fans to look forward to.

That season may never come.

So, as a fan, that is what upsets me: Tim Miles owes it to this team to come back and coach one more damn year. Pierce Hornung, Wes Eikmeier, Jesse Carr, Dorian Green, Greg Smith, Dwight Smith and even Colton Iverson must feel betrayed tonight. How many tournament teams have the chance to bring back five (FIVE!) seniors familiar with significant minutes as well as a junior coming off the bench and a senior transfer (who happens to be 6-10)?

Put yourself in the shoes of Iverson, who left a Big 10 school in Minnesota to play his last year for Tim Miles. Now he becomes eligible for one final year of basketball, only to play for some dude he’s never met or heard of (depending on who takes over).

What the hell is so important about Nebraska? Nebraska? Freaking basketball at NEBRASKA?

Tim Miles has successfully reached out and grabbed more money as the head coach of Nebraska. Nebraska? (AP Photo)

One would have to have some strangely compelling incentives to leave Fort Collins for Lincoln.

Which brings us to the money. Money. Money. Money. Money.

What else is there in life, right?

According to the Post, Miles will make $1.4 million a year over six years at Nebraska. That’s a pretty hefty raise over the upgrade to $750,000 he was due to make after a July contract bump. I’m sure it would have been tough for Miles to life off three-quarters of a million dollars for one more year.

The Big 10 is the Big 10, regardless of how many teams play in the poorly-named conference. However, the Cornhusker job has to be considered the cellar of that conference and Miles has some serious, serious work to do to even be mentioned in the same sentence as Michigan State, Ohio State, Michigan, Purdue, etc.

Nebraska? It’s tough to imagine Timmy sticking around at CSU, entering the national rankings, making the tournament as 5-seed and not entertaining a job offer that exceeds that of freaking Nebraska.

It will be interesting to see how many promising players will stick around and how many will follow the trends of major college basketball and transfer to other schools with coaches who appear to be as committed as Miles once was.

Now Miles leaves behind a fan base which at times could be apathetic and whose true fans are now stuck wondering what might have been. And Rams fans are back to square one, wondering if there are any coaches ready to take over a new program. Coaches filled with school pride and loyalty.

Just like Tim Miles once was.

Sidenote: Two personal favorite Tim Miles memories: 1) Standing in the student section the season we went 0-16 in MWC play and as Miles makes his way to the bench my friend says, “How ’bout a ‘dub tonight??” Miles smiles, points at him, and says, “I think that sounds like a good idea!” 2) One of my best friends’ last night in Fort Collins, a Sunday night at CB & Potts. Out of nowhere an apparently fairly buzzed Miles is leaving. My friend says, “TIIIIM!” Miles turns, smiles and embraces my buddy in a heartfelt hug. …Good Times; we’ll miss him.

The following will be a long, meandering post regarding the state of Colorado State basketball.

Let’s start with my experience at Moby Arena last Wednesday night. No, actually let’s start with when I became a regular at The Whale. I started going to CSU games on the reg my freshman year which was… let me think here, the 2006-2007 season. That team was actually pretty decent for a while. Jason Smith was first-team all Mountain West. I remember a couple games with decent crowds and good energy that year. Upsets of BYU and a Bob Huggins-coached Kansas State team jump out in my memory. The season peaked when CSU received one tally in the “others receiving votes” column of the national rankings. While that’s all well and good, things kind of fell apart from that moment on– not just for the season, but for the program as a whole. Dale Layer was fired. Smith entered the NBA draft. Everyone else on the team transferred somewhere. Some dude from North Dakota State was hired to coach. He went 0-16 his first year in the Mountain West. I was at most of those home games.

Tim Miles plays a little defense in a win against Air Force. Miles has led an impressive transformation of a downtrodden program. AP Photo.

My overall memory of Moby Arena in my time as a student do not contain the words Madness, Magic or Maniacs. What I remember is the student sections (Yes CSU splits the student section in two, which is dumb) usually filling about halfway up.

I remember the big scoreboard that had to be as old as my parents. There was no state-of-the-art videoboards. That meant no pregame video introductions. No replays. No speeches from Ron Burgundy. The damn thing was missing about 20 percent of its light bulbs and every five minutes would advertise snacks at the concession stands by flashing the words “NACHOS!” or “HOT DOGS!”. When it wasn’t doing that, it was providing some 1960s-quality animation of a cheerleader jumping up and down or flashing the word “NOISE” to the 1,800 people there. Hard to believe that technique wasn’t all that effective.

One game (I wanna say Utah, junior year) a friend and I were debating on whether or not to go; we didn’t. At halftime, CSU was surprisingly only a couple points down, so we decided what the hell, let’s catch the second half. We walked up during halftime and sat– literally– in the front row of the student section. The Rams lost. That was a common occurrence. When my friends and I joke that we are martyrs who went through four years of pain for the good of future students, we’re only half joking.

Fast forward to this season’s home finale. #17 UNLV. Wednesday. 8 p.m. I drove up from North Denver even though I had to work south of Denver early the next morning, meaning I would not being staying somewhere in FoCo and there would be no drinking. (Yes, in my day, the uncompetiveness of CSU turned many a game into nothing more than an excuse to party, which was welcome for my group of friends. I also realize uncompetiveness is not a word). Anyway, I picked up my longtime CSU-diehard friend and we hoped for the best. We didn’t try to acquire free student tickets using our old student IDs or talking to the slew of friends who are still up there. We treated this one like real-life alumni, CSU polos and all. (If you didn’t know, nothing says “alumni” of any college like a polo).

I’ve been to a few games after graduation. I saw Air Force this year in a mellow blowout. Last season it was BYU and San Diego State, both sellouts, both losses. The SDSU game was probably the biggest heartbreaker of my CSU career. There was a noticeable difference in the atmosphere and electricity for those games last year. But even those were nothing compared to Wednesday night. The student sections were packed over capacity and they were good and drunk and very loud and very into the game. It was great to see. The non-student crowd was pumped too, well, they were until UNLV started dominating.

Vegas was up 15 at halftime and it appeared the Mitch-Hahn-Big-Game-CSU-Curse was in full effect. When the Rebels went up 16 with under 17 minutes to play. I tapped my friend’s shoulder and said, “Let me know when you’re ready to go.”

Then the Rams flipped a switch and all hell broke loose. The entire near-sellout crowd was on its feet for the last 12 minutes of the fierce comeback. The student sections were doing their thing where they simply jump in rhythm to a hip-hop or techno song. That sounds a little lame, but it is freaking awesome. Stuff like that did not exist when I was there, much as I tried. The night culminated with this:

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Tim Miles, who is never afraid to flash a big smile, celebrates after beating UNLV at a raucous Moby Arena Wednesday night. AP Photo.

Moby Arena, you’ve come a long way.

That said, there’s still plenty of room for growth. In that video did you notice the students rushing the court? No? Well they did. It was the fourth time this season. FOURTH TIME! Colorado, SDSU, New Mexico and UNLV.

Okay before you get upset with me over what is apparently a sensitive topic, hear me out. I have no problem with the CSU fans rushing the court after beating UNLV. They completed a 16-point comeback against the #17 team in the country. The win had huge implications on the possibility of postseason play. Standing alone, there was nothing wrong Wednesday night’s celebration.

But just think if that was the first time the students rushed the court this year. How much more special would that have been? Now you might ask me, “So we’re only allowed to rush the court once a season?” Well, I don’t make the rules, but if I did I would say no.

You should rush the court less than once a season.

While we’re on the topic of student sections– and remember I was pumped to see how the CSU students came out and acted on Wednesday– there was a couple things that made me roll my eyes. Chanting “F***-The-Reb-els” is stupid. It just is. The vulgarity is stupid, but really, the fact that a 6th-grader could come up with a more creative chant is what bothers me. Not to worry though, because that was followed up with a “Rebels suck” chant when UNLV was up by like 14 points. Come on. I don’t think it takes a genius to see the stupidity in that.

Okay, I mentioned the possibility of postseason play earlier, allow me to elaborate on that. After the UNLV win Wednesday and handling Air Force on Saturday, most bracket projections have CSU in the tournament and most even removed them from their “Last 4 In” category. So, yes as it stands right now the Colorado State Rams are in the tournament. The thing is, the season is not quite over.

A tough schedule, including a game at Duke, has the CSU Rams ready to play in the NCAA tournament. Check out this video of Jesse Carr throwing it down on SportsCenter. Photo Courtesy Gary Brooome/AP.

The Rams play TCU Thursday at 3:30 in Las Vegas in the opening round of the Mountain West tournament. Lose that one, and Selection Sunday might not be much fun. TCU took CSU to double overtime in Fort Collins, then beat the Rams in Fort Worth, so this game is no gimmie. The Horned Frogs are a surprisingly athletic team and Hank Thorns was recently named All-Mountain West. I would guess CSU will be about 2 point favorites, but one would have to hope the Rams come out and preform well knowing the win-and-we’re-almost-for-sure-in situation. If CSU gets by TCU, they will (probably) play San Diego State in the semis. If I were a betting man, which I am, I would take CSU in this one. The Rams have played the Aztecs very, very tough in splitting the season series. A win against SDSU makes the Rams a lock.

I’m getting ahead of myself here. Forget anything I said about a second round matchup. Beat TCU on Thursday, and the Rams are probably gunna go dancing. Lose, and head to the NIT. That makes Thursday’s game the biggest CSU basketball game since 2003 when Matt Nelson and company lost to Duke in the first round of the NCAAs.

(By the way… please don’t ask me if winning the NIT would be better than getting into the tournament and losing in the first round. Screw that. You play all season with the hope of lacing ’em up in The Big Dance with the nation watching. You’re not dreaming about playing Northwestern or Iona on a Wednesday night).

Ram fans have good reason to be reluctant to get their hopes up, but Tim Miles’ scrappy bunch has proved to be resilient and tough over the course of this season. So here’s hoping they come up big this week, win a game or two, and realize their dream of playing in the NCAA tournament. Not just for the players, but for all the fans who remember the boring games, the empty arena, the losses and that damn scoreboard.

It’s February. The Super Bowl is over and national signing day is done. It is officially college basketball season.

The NCAA tournament bubble is changing fairly dramatically each week, with teams all over the country looking to snag one of the 37 at-large bids for a chance to go dancing in the best sporting event known to man.

The Colorado State Rams currently stand with a foot on each side of the bubble, hoping they can do enough to make their first NCAA tournament since Matt Nelson led them to a near upset of future NBAers JJ Redick, Sheldon Williams, Chris Duhon, Dahanty Jones and Duke in 2003.

Tim Miles has his CSU Rams in decent position for an NCAA tournament berth, but there's work to be done in the second half of the MWC schedule. (AP Photo/ Ed Andrieski)

I’ll tell you what the Rams need to do to make the tourney in a bit. First let’s look at where the experts place the Rams right now.

ESPN‘s Joe Lunardi projects the Rams to be watching the Madness on TV in his latest bracket. He moved the Rams from his “Last Four In” to his “First Four Out” after last week. Locals might find it interesting that Lunardi’s bracket has Colorado Satesandwiched between Wyoming and CU as the third, fourth and fifth teams left out. Neither of the other brackets mentions the folks in Laramie or Boulder. (Sidenote: Wyoming still has to play UNLV, San Diego State, New Mexico and Colorado State on the road. I’ll think they’ll go 0-4 and be removed from the discussion).

CBS‘s Jerry Palm has CSU playing in the 13-seed play-in game in his bracket. He has the Rams as his last team in.

Sports Illustrated‘s Andy Glockner has the Rams playing in the 12-seed play-in game in his bracket. He also has CSU among his “Last Four In.”

Now it’s important to keep in mind that these bracket projections– as fun as they are– don’t really mean much and are kind of silly. These are all simply guesses at what the selection committee might do if the season ended today. Thing is, the season doesn’t end today; there’s a lot of basketball left to be played.

Rewind to about a year ago. I remember scanning these brackets and seeing the Rams projected to make the field in most of them (even a 10-seed at one point). Then the team lost four of five regular season games and got bounced in the opening round of the Mountain West tournament. They were nowhere to be found on Selection Sunday.

With that in mind let’s look at what Tim Miles’ squad has done and needs to do.

Besides team records and the “eyeball test” (whatever the hell that is) the things the selection committee looks at the most are RPI, Strength of Schedule, Quality Wins and Bad Losses.

The biggest thing working for the Rams are the computer numbers. Their RPI is 26 and their SOS is 10. Those numbers indicate a lock to make the tourney. The Rams don’t have any bad losses either. However, CSU has only one quality win (San Diego State at home). To make the tourney, they will have to get a few more wins over RPI top 50 and top 100 teams.

They will have their opportunities.

We are halfway through the MWC schedule. Each team has played seven games with seven to go. The Rams went 4-3 the first time through with all three losses coming on the road to some of the better teams in the conference (UNLV, New Mexico, Wyoming) they get those teams in Moby this time around.

Here’s what needs to happen for the Rams in their seven remaining games for them to go dancing:

at TCU: Must win

at Boise State: Must win

vs. Wyoming (70 RPI) : Must win

vs. New Mexico (43 RPI) : Must win

at San Diego State (18 RPI) : Can afford to lose, but a win would make them a near-lock (assuming they haven’t lost to TCU, BSU or UW).

vs. UNLV (11 RPI) : Pretty close to a must win

at Air Force: Must win

Okay you got all that? Simple stuff really. Pop quiz coming soon.

This team should be better prepared for a stretch run and the accompanying pressure after last year’s collapse. The above schedule is no walk in the park, and actually when you factor in the number of “must wins,” it’s pretty daunting. The Rams can’t afford to slip up one time and lose a game they shouldn’t. That’s not an easy thing to handle.

So I guess for me the bottom line is this: I would be surprised if the Rams make the NCAA tournament. It’s hard for me to see a 6-1 record finish and even 5-2 might not be enough.

Either way, we should be in for an interesting few weeks of college basketball.